At around 10:45 p.m. on June 2, 2020, a Mazda Protege driven by 18-year-old Kara Beaty collided with a Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle on the southside of South Bend, Indiana. The driver of the motorcycle, 33-year-old Erin Smith, suffered severe internal and external injuries.
On August 7, 2020, police charged Beaty with Causing Serious Bodily Injury when Operating a Motor Vehicle with a Schedule I or II Substance in Blood, after a blood test came back positive for the active ingredient in marijuana. After Smith died from complications due to his injuries on December 15, 2021, prosecutors upgraded her charge to Causing Death or Catastrophic Injury.
In the moments before the crash, Smith had been using Facebook Live to capture his ride, recording 2 minutes and 32 seconds of video. Beaty’s father, a retired detective with the South Bend Police Department, obtained the video from Smith’s sister and forwarded it to Commander Timothy Spencer with the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office Fatal Crash Team. He also shared the video with his daughter’s attorneys, Michael Tuszynski and David Newman.
Separately, Landin Willis, who had heard the crash from a nearby restaurant, copied the final 23 seconds of Smith’s video from Facebook and later provided that snippet to the state.
Beaty’s trial in St. Joseph County Superior Court began on August 21, 2023.
The crash had occurred while Beaty was turning left onto Walter Street from Michigan Street, a major north-south thoroughfare. Smith was riding north. The state’s theory was that Beaty, a young and inexperienced driver, had pulled out in front of Smith, and that Beaty was distracted, because she was unlawfully using social media, and possibly high, because of the presence of THC in her bloodstream. Beaty’s defense asserted that she was neither distracted nor high, and that the extent of Smith’s injuries and the evidence from the accident scene indicated that he was speeding.
Caroline Torrie, the supervisor in the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office Cyber Crimes Unit, testified that Beaty’s phone was receiving data through a YouTube video application in the moments before the crash. Torrie was unable to say when the last time Beaty might have touched her phone prior to the crash. On cross-examination, she said that the video application would continue playing music even if the phone was locked.
Michael Lamb, a forensic toxicologist at NMS Labs, testified that Beaty’s blood tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), but the results didn’t indicate when Beaty might have used marijuana or a product that contained THC.
Lamb testified that the results showed the presence of .68 nano grams, or .68 of a billionth of a gram, just above the threshold for reporting of .50 nano grams. He also testified that the speed at which THC levels declined after consumption varied based on use habits. For infrequent, or what he called “naïve” users, the levels might quickly drop to undetected levels, while the levels for chronic users might remain above the threshold for a longer period of time.
Joshua Siekman, a drug-recognition expert with the St. Joseph County Police Department, testified that he interviewed Beaty at the hospital, where she received treatment for her injuries. He said he gave Beaty a series of tests to ascertain whether she was under the influence of any drugs.
Siekman said he could not conclude that Beaty was impaired, but he said that several of her physiological responses, such as her rebound dilation—how quickly her pupil adapts to light changes—were “all indicative or common with cannabis use.”
During cross-examination, Siekman said Beaty’s own injuries and the shock of the accident itself could have accounted for her jumpy heart rate and other issues noted in his report. He said that Beaty consented to have her blood tested. Because of Smith’s extensive injuries and the critical nature of those injuries, his blood was never tested.
Dr. Scott Thomas, the trauma medical director at Memorial Hospital in South Bend, testified about Smith’s injuries and the efforts to save his life on the night of the crash. Smith required 50 units of blood, which Thomas said put “pressure” on the blood bank. During cross-examination, Thomas testified that the field report he received from the paramedics said that Smith was going more than 100 mph at the time of impact and that his body came to rest 60 feet from where his motorcycle struck the car. Thomas said Smith’s injuries were consistent with that report.
Stephen Irk testified that he was driving his truck just behind Smith as both men exited the U.S. 31 bypass onto Michigan Street. He said that Smith pulled into the Marathon gas station a quarter mile north of the interchange. Irk said he did the same but left quickly because he didn’t have his wallet. Smith had also left quickly and both men continued heading north on Michigan, with Smith about 20-30 yards in front of Irk. The crash happened at the next intersection, and Irk estimated Smith was doing about 30 mph when Beaty turned into his lane.
In Indiana, jurors are allowed to ask witnesses questions. One juror asked Irk whether Smith accelerated when he left the gas station. Irk said he didn’t.
Several other witnesses, including Willis, testified about seeing the crash or hearing the motorcycle in the seconds before the crash. None of these witnesses testified that Smith had ducked into the Marathon station before continuing north on Michigan Street.
Spencer testified as an expert witness on the accident reconstruction. He said that his analysis concluded that Smith was traveling between 37-42 mph, below the posted limit of 45 mph, at the time of impact.
He said this speed range was calculated using a formula that factors in how far Smith’s body was found from the point of impact—known as the “throw distance”—and the launch angle, based on where Smith made impact with the Mazda. When a motorcycle hits a car, the motorcycle often rotates, pitching the rider into the air, Spencer testified, and higher angles lead to longer throw distances. He said he estimated the range of potential angles by looking at the damage to the motorcycle and the car. He also said that Smith’s body was found 90 feet from the point of impact.
Spencer testified that he viewed the 23 seconds of video provided by Willis but didn’t authenticate it or use it in his analysis.
Robert Rose, a paramedic with the South Bend Fire Department, testified for the defense. Rose treated Smith at the scene and called the hospital to alert the medical staff about what to expect, an exchange of information called a “Trauma Time Out.” Rose testified that Smith’s injuries were consistent with a high-speed collision but acknowledged that he had no expertise in crash reconstruction.
Beaty testified about the moments before the crash. She said that she finished her shift at the Dairy Queen, which was a few blocks north on Michigan Street, changed her shoes and got into her car for the three-mile drive home. She said she connected her phone to the Bluetooth adapter in the car and started playing a music video, placing the phone between her legs.
She said she was turning off Michigan onto Walter to avoid the congestion when the crash happened. “All I can really remember is it was just like a normal night for me,” Beaty said. “I got into that left turn lane. I waited for a car to pass. I looked, it was clear, and I made my turn and then, it’s like, I got hit by a rocket, or a jet, and then, from that I can’t really remember much.”
She said she tore ligaments in her knee, which required surgery, fractured her wrist, and received a concussion.
Despite her age, Beaty was still operating under a learner’s permit. She said the Covid pandemic had made it difficult to get her actual license, because the Department of Motor Vehicles offices were not operating under normal hours. She acknowledged that she should not have been driving at the time without being accompanied by a licensed driver who was at least 25 years.
Beaty testified that she smoked marijuana, using a vape pen, several times a week, but that she had not smoked in the 24 hours prior to the accident.
She also testified that she was wearing her glasses but didn’t know what happened to them after the crash.
During cross-examination, a prosecutor asked Beaty whether she was aware that Indiana law prohibited motorists under the age of 21 from using a telecommunication device except to make a 911 call. Beaty said she didn’t know about that law but acknowledged she should not have been driving alone.
She also said on cross-examination that she remembered telling an officer at the scene that she hadn’t been wearing her glasses.
On August 24, 2023, the jury convicted Beaty of Causing Death or Catastrophic Injury when Operating a Motor Vehicle with a Schedule I or II Substance in Blood. She was sentenced to six years in prison, with three years suspended.
Beaty reported to prison on October 10, 2023, filed a notice of appeal on October 17, 2023, and quickly moved for an appeal bond to allow her release from prison during her appeals. The trial court denied her request, but Beaty appealed, and the Indiana Court of Appeals granted her motion on June 28, 2024. St. Joseph County Prosecutor Ken Potter agreed to the release.
On July 29, 2024, Attorney John Kindley filed a petition for post-conviction relief, asserting that Beaty’s conviction was marred by ineffective assistance of counsel by her trial attorneys and misconduct by prosecutors.
At the heart of the claim was a close examination of the extended video of Smith riding his motorcycle in the moments just before the crash. The petition said that the video contradicted Irk’s testimony in two important ways. Irk had testified that Smith came off the bypass and then headed north on Michigan Street, stopping briefly at the gas station. The video had Smith taking a different route before heading up Michigan and not stopping at the gas station. In addition, Smith appeared to be riding recklessly, at one time without any hands, and shifting into high gear just before the impact with Beaty’s car.
“The State committed prosecutorial misconduct at trial by presenting the testimony of Stephen Irk, when it knew or should have known that it was contradicted by Smith’s complete Facebook Live video and therefore was false and perjurious,” the petition said. “Petitioner’s trial counsel performed deficiently by failing to raise prosecutorial misconduct at trial, based on the State’s use of Irk’s testimony when it knew or should have known that it was false and perjurious.”
In a response filed on August 28, 2024, the state denied that it had failed to correct Irk’s false testimony. It acknowledged the existence of the longer video, which it said had “authenticity issues,” and that it believed Irk’s testimony was “truthful under oath subject to cross-examination.” It also said that Beaty’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel was best handled through an evidentiary hearing.
In a second response, filed on February 28, 2025, the state acknowledged that Spencer and several prosecutors viewed the longer video prior to trial. It also further described the methodology used by Spencer, known as the Searle formula, to calculate Smith’s speed before impact with Beaty’s car. The variables in the formula are the takeoff angle, which Spencer estimated at between 10 and 45 degrees, and the drag coefficient, which he set at .8 “derived from public data and the results of testing that I have taken part in throughout my career.”
In October 2024, attorneys with the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic began representing Beaty.
On March 28, 2025, Beaty’s attorneys and the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office submitted a joint motion asking the court to vacate Beaty’s conviction.
The parties agreed that the extended video contradicted Irk’s testimony and undermined his credibility as a witness. It noted that Irk provided the only direct eyewitness testimony used by the state to establish the cause of the crash.
Spencer used the footage to reconstruct the final minutes of Smith’s ride. Although most of the video showed Smith’s head and torso, several landmarks were visible in the background, including a blur of a sign in the seconds before the crash. The reconstruction narrowed down the possible signs to three along Michigan Street. One sign indicated a speed of 48 mph. The middle sign indicated a speed of 108 mph, and the third sign indicated a speed of 129 mph.
The state said it could not determine which sign was the one on the video. (Beaty’s attorneys said it was the middle sign.) But the parties agreed that this evidence “does affect the State’s requirement to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Ms. Beaty ‘caused’ the crash that resulted in the death of Mr. Smith.”
The reconstruction and analysis suggested that Smith was riding his motorcycle at a significantly greater speed than the evidence presented by the state at trial, the joint motion said.
On April 14, 2025, Judge Jeffrey Sanford of St. Joseph County Superior Court granted Beaty’s motion for a new trial.
Judge Sanford’s ruling did not address the claims of ineffective assistance of counsel or prosecutorial misconduct. But it said the new analysis of the video undercut Irk’s trial testimony and the state’s ability to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Beaty caused the accident.
The state dismissed the case on April 17, 2025.
Kevin Murphy, a staff attorney with the Notre Dame clinic, said “Kara’s wrongful conviction was particularly devastating because it sent a young woman who had her life ahead of her to prison for a crime that she did not commit.”
– Ken Otterbourg
Posting Date: 05-01-2025
Last Update Date: 05-01-2025
